Julia CAN Sing
by ambisinistrous-and-asinine
Summary: StarKid one-shot featuring Jarren - fluff and romance. Julia Albain and Darren Criss both like each other and they both refuse to believe the other feels the same way. Darren's coming to the APOCALYPTOUR and Julia's off in her own world singing about him how much she loves him. And he hears her.


JULIA **CAN **SING

**Disclaimer – I do not own any of the StarKids. That would be fantastic, but illegal. Nor do I own their songs or ideas. This story is solely for the reading pleasure of myself and other fans and I am not implying that any of these events are real.**

"Alright, guys, so Darren's coming today, and it seems he's going to be late again, so we'll just rehearse something he's not in. How about Sami/Harry?"

"Oh, but Julia," Jaime complained, "I'm busy!"

"This is not the time for kissing, Jaims, it's time for singing. So I need," Julia stood up and walked over to Jaime, untwining her fingers from Joey's hair and pulling her by the arm to the stage, "I need you to listen to me, okay? Come on."

She gestured to Clark to begin playing the music, and re-joined the group to watch Jaime and Dylan perform. Their voices sounded magical together, like they were made to sing together. Julia tried to imagine Darren singing this song with Jaime, but it probably wouldn't sound as good, even though Darren was a superb singer. Julia hoped Darren would arrive soon. For one, they needed to rehearse with him and they had to go through the entire show at least once before the performance. Also the fact that for the past seventeen months, whenever she thought of Darren Criss, her heart flipped and her stomach would beat faster. No, that wasn't right, but she could never think straight with him on her mind. And on the odd occasion when she saw him at parties or show nights, she would always try to find reasons to talk to him, touch him, be with him. But mostly she needed him here to rehearse. Sort of.

* * *

He was already an hour late and Julia was already going to kill him, but he couldn't possibly have gotten there any faster. Well maybe, but that bow tie was just too great to pass up, he **had** to buy it. And maybe he could have survived without that piece of cake from his favourite bakery which may or may not have been in the other direction from the theatre where he needed to be, but it **was** delicious and definitely worth it.

He was almost there now, just a block or two away, and he went over in his head for the thousandth time what he needed to tell Julia at some point that evening. He was finally going to tell her how he felt. It had been for a while now that Darren had fancied Julia, and the only person he had told was Joey, who vowed to protect Darren's secret from his gossiping girlfriend. He drove around the corner to the theatre and parked in the staff car park next to Lauren's car.

He took his guitar from the boot, and walked into the building really quietly, trying to surprise his friends. Darren crept through the door into the softly illuminated backstage rooms and around the sound systems and mics. As he got closer to the costumes behind the stage, he could hear someone singing. A girl, singing quietly, meaning it couldn't be Jaime. He slowly followed the voice around the back of the stage, passing the costume room where he could hear Brian Holden and Meredith doing god knows what in there. As he got closer to the singing, he could make out the lyrics.

"… _it's about time I proved him wrong  
Give me a shot to show what I've got  
I'm a hell of a whole lot more  
Than this plain old hair  
These frumpy clothes I wear  
But I rock 'em like he has never seen before!"_

Darren placed his guitar on a table and poked his head round to see the stage. He saw Jaime and Joey lying on the floor opposite him, bodies intertwined; Lauren reading on the chairs in the audience; Dylan, Joe, Brian R and Jim sitting on the other side of the stage talking, and Julia with her back pressed against the back wall of the stage. Darren realised it was her who was singing The Coolest Girl. Julia! Julia Albain was singing, and she was singing really well.

"_The coolest girl on the face of the planet  
The coolest bitch on earth, Goddamnit  
The coolest chick he's ever seen or heard"_

She sounded so good, and Darren wished she's have said something about it before; maybe she could have sung in some of the shows.

"_So you can try to bring me down  
But sorry, Dare, I'm stickin' around  
I've thought about…"_

Her voice became distant as the words sunk in. Darren's jaw dropped and he jerked his head back, pressing himself against the cold, hard wall behind the stage. His heart was going a million miles an hour. Julia liked him? Now he couldn't tell her! No, wait! Now he COULD tell her! He was confused. Darren realised no one knew he was even there, which was probably why they weren't practicing anything. He picked up his guitar and sat on the table, and played the opening bars of Granger Danger. He heard Jaime squeal, her scrambling and running, and he quickly put his guitar down as she ran into his arms.

"DARREN!"

"Hi, Jaime," he laughed.

He was greeted by hugs and kisses from all his friends, including Julia, who he noticed looked sort of worried. How was he going to tell her? He suddenly had a crazy idea.

"Guys, guys, guys, I have an announcement to make!"

They all gathered round him expectantly. What was he thinking? He couldn't do it like this! Well, maybe he could… but how to say it…

"Shit," he muttered. "Okay, uh… ooh, yes, so, I need to tell you all something. Well not really all of you, but never mind, just, urgh! Okay, so, Julia, will you be my girlfriend?"

Darren held his breath and everyone turned to Julia. She was staring at Darren, eyes wide, and he could tell she wasn't breathing. Lauren put her hand on Julia's shoulder.

"Breathe, Jules," she reminded her.

"Oh," Julia exhaled deeply, but didn't say anything else.

Darren cleared his throat and Julia looked back up at him.

"Uh," he said, "Well, I posed a question, and I was kind of hoping for an answer."

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She looked so scared, and she was breathing heavily now.

"Julia?"

* * *

She couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't even think. She knew all eyes were on her, but when Julia tried to respond, nothing came. Suddenly Darren was by her side, holding her arm and beckoning her to come with him. She followed him and he guided her into the costume room. He sat up on the bench and patted the seat next to him. Julia joined him.

"So," he began, "Are you okay?"

Julia nodded, still unable to form words. She wasn't looking at him, but she could feel his eyes on the side of her face. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek and she gasped softly.

"Is that okay?" he asked, and she nodded again.

Darren must have taken her affirmative as an opportunity, for he kissed her cheek again, and again and again.

"Darren," Julia finally spoke, "What are you doing?"

"Kissing you," he smiled, "Why, did you want a turn?"

"Um, okay."

She slowly moved her head forward and as she neared him, he turned his head so he was facing her, his lips puckered, making her squeal.

"Damn," he grumbled to himself.

"Darren, you little shit!" Julia lightly slapped his shoulder.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Go again."

"No! Because you'll just move your head again!"

Blood rushed to her face as Darren flashed his gorgeous smile at her.

"Fine then," he said.

Julia turned her head away from him, and he kissed her check again.

"Now this time when I go to kiss you, turn your head to face me, okay?"

"Okay."

He leaned in again, but she didn't turn her head, so he kissed her on the cheek.

"C'mon, Jules, work with me here! Don't you like me?"

"Maybe," she teased.

He growled at her and tried to kiss her again, and she didn't turn her head this time either. She could sense him getting frustrated, but she didn't want to give in; Julia liked having things done her way. But she really did like Darren, and she really did want to kiss him, but she wanted it to be romantic like she imagined, not joking and mucking around like this. Darren tried twice more to get her to turn her head to kiss him, but she refused each time.

"Okay," Darren whispered to himself, "I'm gonna try one last time."

He probably thought she'd do it this time, but he was very wrong. He leaned in again.

"I heard you singing and you're really good," he said.

"What?!"

The second she looked into his golden eyes and saw the smirk on his face, she knew he had won. His lips were on hers in an instant and his arms went around her waist. It wasn't how Julia had wanted their first kiss to be. Though it was sort of romantic, but they were still joking around, which made it perfect. What she been thinking? She was kissing Darren Criss, of course it was perfect. Julia closed her eyes and kissed him back. She could get used to this.

* * *

He could not believe it worked; he really, really thought it wouldn't. She was so silly, so cute. Her hands cupped the sides of his face and she shifted her body closer. Her lips were so soft, her fingers so delicate, and despite what she thought, Darren thought Julia was stunningly beautiful.

He could hear their friends singing out on the stage. Thankfully someone was going something important. It seemed that Julia, too, realised that Darren would need to practice the songs before the show tonight, as she stopped kissing him and pulled away.

"Aw," he complained, "But we were just getting started."

"Don't even go there," Julia said, trying to be serious but struggling to hold back a smile. "We should probably get back out there so you can learn the songs."

"Probably, but first," he hopped down from the dresser, "You didn't answer my question."

She stared at him blankly for a second, then realisation dawned on her and she slid off the bench and took his hands in hers. She reached up and stroked his hair, and kissed him on the cheek.

"Will I be your girlfriend?" Julia repeated, "Oh, Darren, you are such an idiot."

He suddenly became scared and confused. Was she rejecting him? But they just—

'Of course I will," she whispered, kissing his lips again.

His heart flipped and a grin spread across his face.

"Cool," he said, "Actually, that's more than cool. It's totally awesome."

* * *

They rehearsed for a few hours until the show in the evening. The crowd was enormous and when Darren sang Status Quo, Julia, who was sitting backstage waiting for him, had to be restrained by Meredith to stop her from just running on to the stage to get to him. His singing made her skin prickle and her heart fluttered. When he finished the song and came backstage, Julia jumped up and ran to him, smashing her lips on to his and kissing him fiercely. Lauren and Joe teased her for attacking her boyfriend the second he came offstage, just as she always did to them, but she didn't care. Darren was hers, and she was his. And he wanted to be with her. And although it was deemed rare to have such a love, Julia knew that her love for Darren would take them a long way, and as he kissed her, just as passionately as she was kissing him, she knew that they would be together for a long time. And as cheesy as it sounded, at this point, her life literally could not have gotten any better.

"Julia," Darren said, as he pulled away, "I—I love you."

Once again she was proven wrong. **This** was perfect. She could definitely get used to this.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it! Please review, comments are greatly appreciated! xx.**


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